What’s your ‘final exit plan’?

Yes, we do have spectacular results so far. And new money is flowing into our hedge fund every month.

Yet, I feel extremely exhausted.

Fast growth is bringing up challenges we were not ready for.

During the first year, we planned to launch only 1 CTA investment program. Now, due to the fast growth, we’re expected to launch 4 by the end of this year. And so far we’ve only launched 2.

And while my team should be working on new portfolios right now, they’re busy solving an endless number of other issues instead. Infrastructure needs to be scaled up quickly. Rapid growth demands better monitoring. An endless number of additional stress-tests have been requested by potential investors. Small bugs that are continuously coming up in our proprietary risk management platform. I could easily continue like this…

Now, here’s the reason why I’m sharing all of this with you:

During these challenging and demanding weeks, I realized one truly important thing…

Yes, I love the idea of achieving the ultimate perfection in trading one day.

Ultimate mastery is what I’ve been driven by for many years.

But that ultimate mastery doesn’t, in fact, have an ending.

Really.

There will always be MORE to learn, MORE to master.

So, this week, I decided to stop chasing that illusion of the ultimate perfection and mastery. And I started preparing the ultimate “exit-strategy” instead.

My ultimate “exit-strategy” is to get my hedge fund to 100 million USD under management.

Then train my entire team to be able to run the fund fully independently.

And then quit trading completely and ‘retire’.

I calculated, that with a reasonable growth of the hedge fund, I should be able to retire within 5 years.

And then, I’ll start focusing on stuff I would love to do next. Like teaching meditations and doing meditation retreats.

So, 5 more years and then ‘retirement’. That’s my ’final exit plan’.

Now, let me ask you:

What’s yours?

I think it’s very important for every trader to have some.

At least “partial” (we do have “partial exits” in trading too).

Like “within 5 years to normalize my trading income on 60% return with 20% Max Drawdown on average”.

Or “within 10 years make 5 million dollars and retire”.

Or anything like that.

This will help you stay focused.

This will line up a much clearer path for you.

And it will also help you to have more tangible goals, than chasing the illusive, non-existent perfection and mastery 🙂

So, whatever trading level you’re at right now, think exactly what you want to achieve and in what time horizon.

If a goal (or the ‘final exit plan’) is not clearly set and articulated, then it can never be achieved.

Happy trading!

Tomas

P.S.

There’s one trader I really admire and that I think is close to “mastery”. He’s been a successful trader for over 40 years, with a proven track record. His name is Robert Pardo and I seriously recommend you take a look at his Building Robust Strategies Masterclass.

How do you REALLY know your strategies aren’t just over-optimized rubbish?

✓ 3 key mistakes traders make when over-optimizing systems that lose money soon after live trading

✓ How to make your optimizations really robust (including a downloadable step-by-step checklist you can follow to make sure you don’t miss any of the key steps)

✓ Loads of tips on how to fix common strategy problems and create better performing strategies

Want to build trading strategies that actually work in live trading?

"After I analysed the work of so many traders for several years , I can count you as one of the handful of genuine traders and educators whose methods actually work."

RamanBreakout Strategies Masterclass Student

"As a programmer who has been fiddling with automated trading via AmiBroker and standalone Interactive Brokers API I kind of thought 'Oh well, another set of rules to program, might be interesting, may as well have a look'.

I was completely blown away by Tomas' automated strategy creation idea - so obvious in retrospect, but so clever. Effectively optimizing the strategies rather than the parameters. Game-changer."

DaveEmini Breakout Strategies Student

"I've not even watched past module 3 and already I've found a solid use for Market Internals in my own trading system! I'm really impressed by what I've tested already- I've been trading for nearly 11 years and I've never thought of using something so conceptually simple but so powerful"

CraigMarket Internals Student

"Thank you Tomas and Andrew. I appreciate your honest transparency and commitment to excellence. This speaks volumes to your market and will place you well above the rest!"

PhilBreakout Strategies Masterclass Student

“This course is quite informative. I've been developing my own trading strategies now and this course gave me valuable insight and validation.”

ChangBreakout Strategies Masterclass Student

"The scope and content of the course is impressive. The support is prompt and detailed. All in all, an excellent package!"

JohnEmini Breakout Strategies Student

"The course is very impressive.... the improvements in strategy results that you get are pretty amazing!"

TrevorDynamic Position Sizing Student

"I think the Dynamic Position Sizing course is great. It is well laid out and very clear. Thanks for another great course."

JimDynamic Position Sizing Student

"I am already amazed about the concept/ideas presented in the introduction. I always filtered the trades completely out instead of simply down or upsizing them based on the probability. Already that one is simply great, especially to prevent curve fitting and still being in the game also on bad days!"

ChristianDynamic Position Sizing Student

“Immediately after applying just the time filters from the ‘Smashing False Breakouts’ course, I achieved an absolutely massive improvement.”

Let’s Get Social!

DISCLAIMER: Trading involves significant risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. People can and do lose money. Hypothetical results have many inherent limitations. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.